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Above: The Long RoadIf there is anything to be learned from film history, it might be how fragile history really is, how easily it is changed, erased and can be constructed to disempower. Fragility in relation to history, memory, and time is one of the main reoccurring themes within the International Film Festival Rotterdam’s program “The Tyger Burns.” By curating a program that only featured new work of filmmakers who were already active by the time the Rotterdam festival started in the 1970s, Iffr programmer Gerwin Tamsma and guest programmer Olaf Möller brought an exceptional ode to the figure and the gaze of the old director this year. The importance of a program such as “The Tyger Burns” cannot be easily overestimated within our current festival climate and it makes quite a radical and necessary statement. Our contemporary film and festival industry is predominantly preoccupied with discovering and cherishing youth.

Masterclasses from Pedro Costa, and Sarah Gavron and Anu Henriques, offered differing perspectives.

UK filmmakers Sarah Gavron and Anu Henriques, and Portuguese director Pedro Costa offered distinct interpretations of the international film industry in their respective masterclass sessions at International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) this weekend.

Gavron, whose latest feature Rocks is playing at the festival, discussed a collaborative approach to filmmaking that, while acknowledging it would be unpopular with some, she felt has brought results. She co-created the film with Theresa Ikoko and Claire Wilson.

“I honestly think there’s a way of doing creative decisions where you don...